Eventually in this post I’ll get to us switching to Hyundais in the Matthews home!

Robyn and I first met Ashley Martin Burnette‘s mom Nicole at the NMTRC Symposium in 2014. She is a vibrant cancer-mom, much like Robyn, and I enjoyed hearing her words as we sat in group discussions around the future and present of childhood cancer research. She was surrounded by her mom and her (I think?) sister, in a room full of other cancer kid parents whom I’ve known for years, some I’d come to know only recently (hi Graeme!).

We later found out Ashley, Nicole’s daughter and a stage 4 neuroblastoma fighter, is currently NED (what neuroblastoma patients call remission), and on the DFMO trial Because of Ezra is currently helping to fund (along with other great parent groups across the country). Ashley is also one of Hyundai Hope on Wheels’ 2014-2015 National Youth Ambassadors.

We’ve seen incredible national companies put their focus on curing childhood cancer, and are always encouraged to see it. Dell has been brilliant at helping to fund research through the NMTRC which we also help to fund through Because of Ezra. Northwestern Mutual does much to help. There are many others, and locally in Tampa we’ve seen huge support as well. Hyundai has been a cut above the rest, giving $87 million since 1998 through their Hyundai Hope on Wheels project. When we met Ashley’s mom Nicole, and heard how much Hyundai was doing, we knew we had to support such a great company!

So we did. We swapped our German cars for Hyundais in October, and have loved it. They’re good cars, but it’s about more than that – they’re a company who is doing incredible work to work toward a cure for childhood cancer, and we couldn’t be more proud to support them. When we walked into the dealership, we saw posters of Ashley all over. The sales person mentioned their initiatives to us without prompting, saying how hard it must be for a family to go through having a child with cancer. We chose not to talk about Ezra, wanting to see where the conversation would go if we weren’t cancer parents, and were thrilled to see how often he brought up Hyundai’s work with Hope on Wheels.

From all of us in the Matthews home and at Because of Ezra, thank you Hyundai. You’re making a difference, and we are honored to have you on the team working to cure childhood cancer. This matters!